


Three Lovers' Day

by greenbucket



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, Post-Canon, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22698724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbucket/pseuds/greenbucket
Summary: Aang, Katara, Zuko, and one ostrich horse travel to Omashu's annual Two Lovers' Day celebrations.
Relationships: Aang/Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 87





	Three Lovers' Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aerialbots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerialbots/gifts).



> for aerialbots as part of the Zutaraang Valentines Exchange, hope you like it!

Approximately two thousand years (otherwise known as a little while) into their journey, their borrowed carriage is already a place of moderate motion sickness, madness, and mayhem.

It’s been quiet for a while, leaving the energies of nausea, boredom and hysteria to just _linger_ , which sucks. Aang doesn’t want things lingering, he wants things moving, and going, and all of that. So he takes a deep breath and relishes watching Zuko and Katara both realise what he’s about to say. Again. “I spy, with my–”

Katara sweetly clamps a hand over his mouth before he can finish. “No more,” she says firmly. “No more I spy.”

“But I love I spy,” is Aang’s muffled protest, more for appearances than anything. He waits until Katara takes her hand away to continue, “Don’t you guys love I spy? We’ve played it _so_ many times. And you’re both so bad at it!”

Katara shoves at him with an elbow. “Thanks for the reminder, Aang.” And then, a little more snottily, “Reminder also that it’s against the rules to spy things that are _moving_ since, you know, we’re in a moving carriage?”

“I disagree with that rule. In _my_ day–”

“Exactly why we shouldn’t play it again,” Zuko interrupts, tone all _that’s that_. “Anyway, what else new could there be for your eyes to spy? There’s not even anything that interesting around here.”

Aang replies, “Aw, Zuko, you’re plenty interesting. Super interesting,” and it comes out somehow more mocking and more sincere than he’d intended, which was not the plan. He blames being stuck in this carriage, with the prospect of a day and a half’s more travel ahead, plus their wider plan knocked all out of place.

“Uh, thanks?” says Zuko, and he sounds suspicious but then has the nerve to do his own fond not-smile _thing_.

“At least as interesting as these mountains,” Katara agrees, nodding, like Zuko hasn’t been complaining all day how boring the mountains are. Considering she’s the one contributing the most to the motion sickness energy of their carriage it’s a pretty good one.

This time Zuko snorts then does the fond not-smile. “Okay, thanks, I get the idea.”

He turns from where he’s sitting half inside the seating area of the carriage and half on the tiny steering seat, like that’s a normal thing to do, to check their trusty steed is doing all right. Katara pulls out the map in weary anticipation, moments before Zuko calls back, “Wait, can someone check on the map which way and how far it is to Omashu again? I don’t think this one takes directions very well.”

-

So, the plan.

The plan specifically for stage seven, step eight of his and Katara’s courting program – also known as the ‘how to convince Zuko it’s okay to like both of us and do something about it, or let us do something about it, and then keep doing something about it’ program because Zuko might _think_ he’s being subtle, but it’s not subtle enough – had initially been vastly different to their current situation, as Aang recalls.

The general idea was this: plenty of joking and teasing to ease Zuko into an implicitly romantic meal on Two Lovers’ Day. At sunset. On a balcony hopefully, maybe with music and/or a dance floor to hand. He and Katara would allow some room for figuring things out as they went, obviously.

Conveniently, they’d all been invited as diplomats (or esteemed guests, or whatever the exact wording was this time) to Omashu’s annual celebrations for the day, more recently with an added focus on unity between nations. They were held each year the day following Two Lovers’ Day, conveniently again, probably because people were usually busy doing other things on Two Lover’s Day, Aang guessed.

Far less conveniently, Appa had fallen ill with sky fever just after they’d set off for their trip. Aang had always figured Appa had had it when he was young, like most sky bison did, and in the ensuing hundred years Aang had just forgotten it, but as he got more and more wheezy, grumpy, and generally feverish, they’d had no choice but to make an emergency stop in the nearest settlement.

The teeny tiny settlement had provided them with one very competent and helpful physician, a hopefully trustworthy enough place for Appa to rest and be cared for even if it made Aang’s skin crawl to leave him, and exactly one ageing, possibly confused ostrich horse plus rickety carriage to complete their journey to Omashu.

With time running out to avoid both spitting on the Earth Nation’s diplomatically-extended hand and missing what seemed a prime stage seven, step eight opportunity, there hadn’t appeared to be much choice. But now here they are, one day of travel in, still half a day’s or another night’s interrupted-sleep travel from Omashu, Two Lovers’ Day officially a-go for people not in a carriage, and Aang can’t help but wonder if they made the wrong decision.

“It’s a wonderful sunset,” Aang hears Katara say as she watches, no doubt with the same wistful feeling Aang is, the sky turning pink over the mountaintops.

Aang is taking his turn to steer their unsteerable ostrich horse, who he has creatively named Ostrich-Horse, so luckily he doesn’t have to say anything.

It’s an amazing sunset; a perfect, storybook end to Two Lovers’ Day. It’s just bittersweet. They got to spend the day together, which was nice. There’s no _rush_ obviously, either, since Aang is planning on sticking with Zuko and Katara as long as they’ll have him and he and Katara are almost completely entirely sure they’ve read Zuko’s weirdness correctly as not a fleeting thing, but still. It would’ve been nice to make a step forward with that whole thing today and get a nice evening out of it.

“Really beautiful,” Zuko agrees, completely oblivious.

-

Once it’s dark and the question of food comes up, Katara puts her foot down and they take a break from the rickety cart to eat on solid, unmoving ground. They make sure their sweet elderly fidgety Ostrich-Horse takes the opportunity to rest and eat, too, without the weight of the harness.

When they locate themselves on the map, Aang is surprised to see it turns out they’ve made good enough time that they can relax where they are for a bit before getting back on the road – or the mountain pass, whatever – to make tomorrow’s festivities and diplomacies in time, so the three of them all lean against the same boulder to eat and enjoy the stars.

Even though earlier that same day they’d all at one point or another declared intentions to unhook the carriage from Ostrich-Horse and leave the other two behind, just to have some personal space again. What Aang wouldn’t give to have done this trip before his growth spurt. It is colder with the sun gone though, up in the mountains, and Aang isn’t going to complain about having Katara cuddled up to him on one side and Zuko on the other even if he needs to do some serious stretching at some point soon.

“Sorry you didn’t get to have a Two Lovers’ Day,” Zuko says suddenly, just as Aang is starting to think maybe they should get going again, breaking the almost peaceful quiet.

Zuko saying something like this didn’t come up in Aang or Katara’s plans, probably because they hadn’t foreseen spending the day with Zuko without it being Spending The Day With Zuko. Ostrich-Horse makes a squawking sound, like some kind of protest to Zuko’s apology, which Aang appreciates for its succinctness. Good, intelligent steed.

“Shut up,” says Katara, while Aang is still distracted watching Ostrich-Horse snuffle and scratch and potter about. “It’s just a day. There are plenty more.”

Zuko shifts uncomfortably and starts, “But–”

“No buts,” says Aang.

“ _But–_ ” Zuko tries anyway.

Katara gets to her feet, cutting Zuko off and leaving Aang scrambling to suddenly right himself, grabbing Zuko’s wrist for support. Zuko looks down at Aang’s hand like he’s never seen it before. So, _so_ not subtle, but he and Katara had made a long-term plan so they wouldn’t be pushing Zuko, so Aang doesn’t push.

“You’re a fine person to spend Two Lovers’ Day with, don’t worry,” Aang reassures him instead, unable to get a read on Katara without her facing them. “We would’ve just been in Omashu anyway, and we had a good day, right?”

“Yeah, but–”

Apparently, Katara has decided to speed up the plan considerably, because she turns back and sits directly opposite Zuko and says, clearly and decisively, “Zuko, we would have chosen to spend the day with you, even if we were in Omashu as planned. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Zuko blinks. And blinks. “Maybe?” he says, sounding not sure at all and after a considerable pause. Zuko looks down at where Aang hasn’t moved his hand from his wrist and says, with a little more confidence, “Possibly?”

Feeling daring, Aang moves his hand down so it’s resting over Zuko’s. Like, they could be holding hands if they went for it. “Don’t act dumber than you are,” Aang says to cover up for the fact that, to him at least, this is a very massive step.

“Hey! I’m not,” Zuko says, looking from Aang to Katara and back again. “I think I maybe do understand what you’re saying?”

It’s very clearly phrased as a question, and no doubt they’ll need to do some talking once they’re in the cramped little carriage on their way again, but it’s basically it. They’ve basically jumped all the way from stage seven, step eight, to the end goal. Aang watches Katara come to this realisation at the same time as him and doesn’t try to hold back a smile that feels wide enough to be a mirror image of hers.

“Well, until you’re sure,” says Katara, and when she leans in it’s only to kiss Zuko’s cheek before getting to her feet again, not that Aang would know it if his own eyes hadn’t seen it for how dazed Zuko looks. Aang holds Zuko’s hand properly for a moment, because he wants to and in a show of moral support because he knows what a kiss on the cheek from Katara can do, then kisses Zuko’s other cheek and gets to his feet as well.

Katara is looking out into the darkness again, but this time the cause is far less mysterious. Aang looks from their little carriage to Katara, to Zuko and into the looming darkness surrounding them, then summons some flames to light the way.

Already knowing they were all far too wrapped up in their own business for any luck, he asks, “Anyone see where Ostrich-Horse went?”


End file.
